CNN's Roberts: Palin Too Young and Inexperienced

During the 9 a.m. EDT hour of “CNN Newsroom,” “American Morning” co-anchor John Roberts gave an analysis of Governor Sarah Palin during discussion of Senator John McCain's vice presidential choice. Roberts focused on Palin's lack of experience, saying that a prerequisite for the vice presidency should be the ability to step right into the office, especially because of McCain's age. Roberts stated:

She's only been in office for a couple of years now, which really raises the experience issue here. [...]

Now, she is a manager. She is the governor of a state. She does have limited experience, though. She's also been the mayor for a city in Alaska. And for a time she was the ethics chairman of the Alaska oil and gas conservation commission. But that does not add up to broad experience, particularly the type of broad experience you think should launch you to the national level.

Of course, Senator Barack Obama, who is running for president of the United States, has no executive experience and has only been in the U.S. Senate since 2005. But apparently, Roberts finds Palin to be too inexperienced and young to be vice president.

Roberts's full statement follows:

ROBERTS: Well, she, you know, I talked to [Sarah Palin] a couple of times, and mostly we've talked to her about things that have been going on in Alaska. We haven't talked about national politics.

But she's the youngest governor ever in Alaska's history, and she's the first woman. She's only been in office for a couple of years now, which really raises the experience issue here.

Now, of course, Republicans have been raising the experience issue about Senator Obama, experience not quite so important when you're talking about a vice president, except in the case that John McCain today turned 72 years old.

And one of the prerequisites, we'd like to believe are prerequisites, for picking a vice presidential running mate are a person who can step into the office at a moment's notice and not miss a beat, a person who is prepared to be President of the United States.

Now, she is a manager. She is the governor of a state. She does have limited experience, though. She's also been the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. And for a time she was the ethics chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

But that does not add up to broad experience, particularly the type of broad experience that you think should launch you to the national level.

So, it would be a very interesting pick in terms of the dynamic that it would create next week at the Republican National Convention. You know, all of the speculation about whether Barack Obama was going to choose a woman and didn't, chose Joe Biden. John McCain, all the speculation has been whether he's going to pick perhaps a crossover independent type of candidate like a Joe Lieberman or a Tom Ridge.

If he picked a woman, that would certainly create an interesting dynamic. And maybe the fact that he has the depth of political experience would take away some of those questions about her experience. Again, though, with the caveat that you want to have a vice president who can step right into the job.

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